[Harp-L] ¿ To Soak Or Not To Soak ? Was re:was harp as a toy now set up

["Hurrican Ramón" <party_man1@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Smo-jo sez :

As far as the 'water' trick. Cold water will cause the brass to contract. Just how much difference THIS makes is questionable.

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Hurricane sez :

Dear Smokey :

By far you are about the most fun person here to disagree with :)

On a chromatic , yep your right , just to much harmonica for a quick fix soaking it type solution - agreed - .

But - -

The suck harp as some people call it ( and you know who you people are :) that is a woody - - Hands down -- or rather " lips wrapped " you can not beat a soaked old timey baby woody .

Your observation of the cold water being a negative is something that is totally true too , it does affect not only  tonal qualities but , it can cause a reed to fail fast when you put it through it's passes with it cold and try hammering something really elaborate like Whammer Jammer or the like  ( like a chromatic's reeds when cold right out of their box , I know , I wasted my first chromatic when I was 11 years old for not warmning up the reeds gently first and I realized it too then and never ever messed up a chromatic harmonica due to being ignorant of this fact , the truth is learned sometimes in a painfull manner :): , that said . 

- - so - -

Ya have to make sure the water used is room temp or warmer , and not to warm either for the diatonic  .

Many a time I had to get my own water glass(es) from the bartender directly because the lady's who were serving drinks always assumed I wanted ice cold glass(es) of water with crused ice for drinking purposes ( I would tell them heck no I want cognac to drink not water heh heh heh :) Yes it is ( was in my case ) warm room temp water , that's not an issue in the south west , but east coastees , Chicago guys , I know would find it a tad different heh heh .

But as others mentioned about personas like Carey Bell , Paul Butterfield , and myself commenting on James Cotton , well , once you see it , hear it and then learn from an ace player- -

You know for chure man , chute chaehh je je je !  

I would trick out the cover plates too , replacing the nails with magnetic phonograph cartridge screws . I drilled out the wood in between the nail support holes in that open area around the reed plates with the cover still on nailed in place for perfect centering  . 

I used this opening as a guide as it was perfect for the diameter ( Marine Bands , Old Stanbys -  etceteras ) for those magnetic phonograph cartridge screws I got . The magnetic phonograph screws were easy to come by when you worked in a high end audiophile service shop like I did in the 70's for 7 years , I was the " turntable and tape deck repair guy working on 8tracks , cassettes & reel to reel tape recording Teacs , Sonys , Akais , Revox'es and all the major quality turntables like Dual , Marantz ,Pioneer , Garrard , Empire , Thorens & Vikings ( I worked there to learn how to fix my amps N stuff cause I was a poor boy in those days and I could save up for a high priced sound system & P.A. , but service and repair cost we not cheap then in the 70's )

On the cover plates :

When I tricked them out as they were also contributors to helping the harp to be more air efficient and heh heh to you moustashio'd guys heh heh this stopped most of the harps from ever ripping out my mustache hairs again ! :)

So soak em if your a woody player and learn what it does if you want to go back to that old timey original sound ( or as close as one can depending on many factors ) like Sonny( all of em ) Butterfield ,  Cotton , Bell and many other really great inspirational players  . You can sound like that too if you've a hankering for trying it out as a fun experiment . I do it every once and a while with my old quivers of wooden combed harps that I have left over from those days  ,

- but - 

in all seriousness they area a super big pain in the lip over all when you consider just how much time they take to get up to speed when soaking and shaving and tweaking and working the cover plate if your a regular gigging harmonica playing musician . It's not rocket science or brain surgery , but as I said it's a pain in the  lip :() if you doing this as a full time musician , so if your not go for it man ! It is really fun if it's not a daily routine .


Sincerely :

HR

Aka : 

Party_Man1@xxxxxxxxxx   



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